Evening Service for 10/17/2010
Proverbs 6:16-19
HoHum:
A. Are people good or evil? 83% in a study said that people are basically good.
B. If we leave a child to himself, what will happen? Will he become good or bad?
C. I think that there are good elements in everyone because we all created in the image of God. However, overall people do not seek out good.
D. On recent billboards- "You can be good without God." Is that true?
E. One Christian responded by another slogan, "You can be good without God but you cannot be saved without Jesus." Better but is that true?
F. Mark 10:18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone.
WBTU:
A. It says here that God hates. I thought that God was a loving God. He is but he cannot tolerate sin. Psalm 5:4-5You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.
B. Are we inclined to good or to evil?
Thesis: Let's look at these 7 and see if we inclined to any of these.
1. A Proud Look
A. Ronald Regan, recalling an occasion when he was Governor of California and made a speech in Mexico City: “After I had finished speaking, I sat down to rather unenthusiastic applause, and I was a little embarrassed. The speaker who followed me spoke in Spanish – which I don’t understand – and he was being applauded almost every paragraph. To hide my embarrassment, I started clapping before everyone else and longer than anyone else until our ambassador leaned over and said, ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you, he’s interpreting your speech.’”Although this was quite an innocent mistake, pride is one of the deadliest sins.
B. “Pride is the only disease that makes everyone sick but the one who has it.”
C. Pride was the first sin in heaven.
D. C.S. Lewis says that pride is mankind's greatest sin. thought too highly of ourselves?
E. Romans 12:6- Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
2. Lying Tongue
-A national survey by Rutgers’ Management Education Center of 4,500 high school students found that 75% of them engage in serious cheating.
-Perhaps most disturbing, many of them don’t see anything wrong with cheating. Some 50% of those responding to the survey said they don’t think copying questions and answers from a test is even cheating.
- Have we every lied?
John 8:44- You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
3. Hands that shed innocent blood
A noted hand analyst from New York asserts that the secrets of our personality are revealed by our fingernails. The size and shape of each fingernail reveals something about the personality of a person. I am not sure about that. However, this much is certain. We reveal our personality by what we do with our hands.
Not that we committed murder but have we ever done things with our hands that we shouldn’t
Mark 9:43- If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.
4. Heart that devises wicked plans (imaginations)
In biblical anatomy, the heart was the center of emotions. It was the emoting, thinking, deliberating center of the personality. It held the place in biblical anatomy that the mind holds in our understanding today. The most neglected part of the body today is the brain, the mental center of our being. Experts suggest that most people in their lifetime use only about 10 to 20 percent of their brain power. Neglect of our brain power is not nearly as tragic as directing our mental powers to perpetrate evil rather than good.
Matthew 15:19- Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
Before the flood- Genesis 6:5- The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
Mankind can get quite creative. Children and teenagers.
5. Feet that are swift in running to evil
The average person takes 18,000 steps a day and walks about 65,000 miles during a lifetime. More important than how far we travel is where we travel. Have we used our feet for good or for evil? Like people on playground going to a fight.
6. False witness who speaks lies
A man working in the produce department was asked by a lady if she could buy half a head of lettuce. He replied, "Half a head? Are you serious? God grows these in whole heads and that’s how we sell them!" "You mean," she persisted, "that after all the years I’ve shopped here, you won’t sell me half-a-head of lettuce?" "Look," he said, "If you like I’ll ask the manager." She indicated that would be appreciated, so the young man marched to the front of the store. "You won’t believe this, but there’s a lame-braided idiot of a lady back there who wants to know if she can buy half-a-head of lettuce." He noticed the manager gesturing, and turned around to see the lady standing behind him, obviously having followed him to the front of the store. "And this nice lady was wondering if she could buy the other half" he concluded. Later in the day the manager cornered the young man and said, "That was the finest example of thinking on your feet I’ve ever seen! Where did you learn that?" "I grew up in Grand Rapids, and if you know anything about Grand Rapids, you know that it’s known for its great hockey teams and its ugly women." The manager’s face flushed, and he interrupted, "My wife is from Grand Rapids!" "And which hockey team did she play for?" Oh, my what trouble we get ourselves into when we fail to control our tongue.
Sometimes it's better to tell a white lie than to tell someone a painful truth.
7. One who sows discord among brethren.
After three years of research, Indiana University sociologist Donna Eder has identified an important dynamic involved in gossip. Eder discovered that the initial negative statement was not the starting point for gossip. The critical turning point was found in the response to the initial negative statement. "She’s a real snob" is not the start of gossip. It’s when someone else agrees that the gossip fest begins. Eder found that the key is whether or not a negative statement is "seconded." If a second is provided, gossip has begun.
Proverbs 16:28- A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.
Proverbs 26:20- Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.
Have we ever sowed discord among brethren?
Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Have you ever wondered what makes the difference between a spotlight and a laser beam? How can a medium-powered laser burn through steel in a matter of seconds, while the most powerful spotlight can only make it warm? Both may have the same electrical power requirements. The difference is unity.
A laser can be simply described as a medium of excited molecules with mirrors at each end. Some of the excited molecules naturally decay into a less excited state. In the decay process they release a photon, a particle of light. It is here that the unique process of the laser begins.
The photon moves along and "tickles" another molecule, inviting another photon to join him on his journey. Then these two photons "tickle" two more molecules and invite two more photons to join the parade.
Soon there is a huge army of photons marching in step with each other. It is this unity that gives the laser its power.
A spotlight may have just as many photons, but each is going its own independent way, occasionally interfering with other photons. As a result, much of its power is wasted and cannot be focused to do any useful work.
However, the laser, because of its unity, is like an army marching in tight formation and is able to focus all its power on its objective.
That’s what God wants His church to be. A unified army, made up of “photons,” who are encouraging the other “photons” to join them in their march toward the goal of impacting our world for Jesus Christ.
Each of us as members of this church needs to commit ourselves to being promoters and restorers of unity.
So What:
God hates us because we do these things and we are not good. Well, he has provided a way.
Romans 3:10-24
